Oblivion's Peril

by M. H. Johnson

  7

  Triumph and laughter as inquisitor and Highlord clinked glasses sometime later in the latter's personal office, a luxurious repast of carefully prepared delicacies casually picked over as Veri Koira nodded one final time at the exquisitely complex charts upon the monitor before picking up the cluster of shimmering prismatic cubes Carlito handed him.

  "You did well to trust your enterprise with me, Carlito," Veri said, as if the grimacing man before him had any sort of choice in the matter. "The High Council will be forced to see the worth of our Altersian alloy, especially when we present the flaws hidden within previous fleet iterations. Rest assured, when this is seen through, we will both be worth billions, and the fools who so carelessly overlooked such obvious flaws with their former designs will find themselves paying a dear price for their arrogance and folly!"

  The Highlord flashed a relieved smile. "Indeed, friend Veri. The entire Dominion will be clamoring for the rights to manufacture our design, and as my clan owns the majority of Altersian quarries here in the north, our profits will become the envy of every other clan upon Jordia!"

  The inquisitor dipped his head. "Very good, Carlito. My clan shall ascertain all other players upon the board with an interest in Altersian crystal, and they shall be convinced of the merits of selling their operations to our consortium at generous rates, assuring us a death grip upon all supply. The Charpentiers shall, of course, be responsible for covering those expenses, but the added profits will more than make up for it in the years ahead."

  Carlito grimaced before quickly nodding. "It shall be as you say. No doubt our added profits shall cover the costs in no time."

  +5 to skill check for embracing Shadowmind. Success. You are now a Rank 1 pickpocket!

  A final farewell and they parted company, Carlito's undeniably beautiful wives and daughters bowing as low as any servant would before their master, clearly terrified of the man who paid them no attention at all as he made his way back to the vehicle. Inquisitor Veri favored the Charpentier villa with a final contemptuous smirk as he entered his veli before admiring the crystal cubes now in the palm of his hand. So focused was he on his conquest that he didn't even glance at the clearly empty seats across from him, though it was curious that not even the metallic click of his own recording device grabbed his attention.

  "Where to, sir?" asked one of the men in the front.

  Veri blinked, turning towards his man, a hungry smile upon his features. "This is your first time accompanying me on the field. You know why that is, don't you?"

  The man shook his head.

  "Your ignorance is your virtue. None of our enemies can pry from your mind that which you are completely unaware of."

  The young man swallowed, nodding his head. "I know I am new to my post, sir. I'm just grateful for the opportunity to serve an officer of the High Council."

  "Did the young witch give you any trouble?"

  "Julia Highblood? Not at all, sir. Truth is, her gaze was like a frightened rabbit, ready to bolt, but she didn't fight the collar at all."

  “Excellent. You did have her friends at blasterpoint, yes?"

  "Of course, sir."

  "Good. Our next job, soldier, is cleaning up loose ends." He gazed at the modified collar on the chair behind him, carefully tucking away the priceless crystals within the folds of his attire. "We've broken the girl in with our collar once, she won't think to fight it again. I will go in alone. Both of you will wait by the car. When I explain the situation to Christine, I'm sure she'll appreciate what a noble sacrifice she's making, donating her daughter to crushing all resistance in the south."

  The second guard chuckled. "You will get the best of all of them, as you always do, sir."

  The inquisitor gave a satisfied nod as the veli picked up speed. "Christine was a fool to teach such potent arts to an unstable child. There truly is no place for that hybrid upon Jordia, save learning discipline at my side." He flashed a cold smile. "She will learn soon enough the joy of unquestioning obedience, leaving all other matters to her betters."

  His smug expression was knocked off his face when the velimobile suddenly lurched as a massive blast wave rocked through the air.

  "What the hell was that?"

  "I don't know sir!" cried one of the now panicked men. "The Charpentier manor, it's gone!"

  The inquisitor looked back and hissed, the massive fireball behind him unmistakable. "Damned fools! The way his head technician shook and trembled at my presence, Carlito never should have given him such a vital role! We must salvage what we can. Turn around at once!" he shouted, but their speed only increased and the brilliant fireball that had once been a prosperous manor and laboratory slowly dipped below the horizon before a blinking, disoriented Veri hissed, gripping his seat as the rear began to rise, the entire vehicle vibrating as it hurtled along the road at breakneck speed.

  "What are you fools doing?" he screamed, before gasping with horror as his eyes beheld the pair of headless corpses even now toppling out of the vehicle.

  With panicked desperation, he jerked free his own Psiblade. "My name is Inquisitor Veri Koira! I demand any loyal subject of the Dominion to show themselves and declare the terms of our duel at once! Is this a Dauda attack? You know damn well that attacking a council-appointed inquisitor is one breach you must never commit! The High Council of any planet is always off-limits! Come, state your terms and let us resolve this without any more unnecessary deaths!" he cried, having to shout over the sound of velimobile motors pushed to their limit, the vehicle actively shaking as it raced so fast upon the electromana currents that it began to lift off.

  The inquisitor had time for a single terrified scream before he was thrown clear of a vehicle now spinning end over end, flipping through the air before crashing with a ground-shuddering roar, the stunned, gravely injured inquisitor trying to cry out as his right side was roasted by the fireball nearby, but unable to move.

  Only then did he see the cold, cold eyes of living shadow staring into his own. Veri tried to focus his broken thoughts into an attack but was unable to think, mind roaring into blackness as his shattered body slowly asphyxiated, unable even to breathe.

  Shadow smiled, as if understanding his plight perfectly. Though the inquisitor could not move a muscle, he could still feel the terrible figure yanking off his cloak, then pulling out the brilliant prismatic cubes that had filled Veri with such dreams of wealth and glory, for all that they were the last things he would ever see as he choked to death on that lifeless strip of rocky ground, his killer not even deigning to turn around as Veri screamed at his body just to breathe so he could whisper a single plea for aid.

  And then all was agony as his desperately pounding heart roared through his skull before skittering to a halt, terrified thoughts flung free as Veri Koira's soul was swept into the black vortex that consumed all it touched.

  Inquisitor Veri Koira slain! Experience earned! Hidden Questline: Keys to Conquest uncovered! You now know the weak points of Dominion battleships and possess the only intact blueprints to Altersian Elementium alloy! All other records have been successfully destroyed! All technicians and Highlords with the requisite knowledge to replicate said formula, as well as dozens of innocent souls, have been slaughtered! Ruthless! Double experience earned! You want to think you spared Carlito's wife and daughters, but you're not entirely sure, are you? Only one way to find out, Val, and we both know you're not going back!

  Congratulations! Clenching your will upon dozens of volatile vials for an extended period of time has paid off, and you only came close to dying twice tonight! Meta Magic Feat: Stabilization is now Rank 3!

  Val stumbled to the ground, a dark avatar of shadow no longer. Rather a young man fighting to keep himself together as post-battle shakes overtook him, allowing himself that bitter luxury only because he was utterly alone, nothing but howling winds blowing across dry lands almost as much rocky desert as prairie, the perfume of desert blossoms and the sharp tang of smoke heavy in the air.<
br />
  When the storm of emotion had passed, he found himself gazing up at the beautiful blue moon shining overhead and he couldn't help but smile, suddenly filled with that same wonder that had overtaken him the first time he set foot upon Jordia's surface with Sten, Halvar, Gregor and Elise beside him, just grateful to be alive on a strange new world.

  Only now it was with the echo of dozens of souls flooding into his own, knowing that for all his efforts otherwise, there had been no survivors at the Charpentier manor. Not one.

  And he had known it was a risk even as darkest shadow, somehow flowing past dozens of unsuspecting technicians and servitors as an increasingly animated Carlito explained the delicate process of infusing Altersian crystal within a volatile composite found only in this world before incorporating it all into a pristine titanium silicate matrix.

  When Carlito had explained in hushed tones that failure to properly follow their rigorously calibrated methodology could result in catastrophic disaster mimicking the very exothermics that were outlawed throughout the Dominion, Veri Koira's bemused smile and assurance that folly would not be met with death so long as every safeguard was taken in manufacturing the Altersian alloy had been a weight off Carlito's bulky shoulders.

  And Val's as well.

  For it had allowed the perfect pretext to secure vital technology, his enemy's weaknesses, and take out a key player whose technology would only strengthen the Dominion, all in such a way that no one would expect foul play.

  All it had taken was the nerve to ruthlessly slaughter dozens of innocents guilty of nothing more than being at the wrong place at the wrong time. But if even one of those highly skilled technicians that Carlito had insisted be on hand to better impress his new investor had been allowed to live, Earth's peril would have only grown.

  And no one would ever know about the crystal cubes even now clutched in Val's trembling grip, all evidence of their very existence utterly destroyed with the dozen large flasks of Elementium-infused Silbion he had deposited throughout the compound, most especially the laboratory. Flasks so hyper-infused it had been his iron hard will alone that kept them from exploding the second he hid the first flask out of sight of those soon to expire. A subtle pressure that had steadily intensified by the time the twelfth flask had been carefully hidden away.

  As the distance between the inquisitor's velimobile and Carlito's manor had increased, the pressure upon Val's psyche had steadily intensified until he finally relaxed and let nature take its course. A titanic roar as the entire compound exploded in a massive pillar of flame was all the distraction Val had needed to decapitate the pair of guards and roll off the veli after he jammed into high gear the one lever he had managed to figure out the last time he had driven across the countryside of Jordia.

  He had denied his enemy even the honor of a final duel.

  No telling if Val's blade would have sliced right through these now utterly priceless cubes.

  Val forced himself to look back, wondering how much of the explosion had been his flasks, and how much of it was the Altersian-Elementium infusion Carlito had been so cautious with.

  In the end, he knew it didn't matter. The entire compound had been destroyed.

  Val forced himself straight, remembering Colonel Yancey's words to his newest recruits on the eve of their first mission, what now seemed a lifetime ago.

  Whatever it took, he would do. No matter how ugly things got, he would see this through.

  He would lay low only for as long as it took to make his next move. Until then he would do his best to train, blend in, and do absolutely nothing to draw undue attention to himself.

  No one needed to know that he was responsible for destroying an entire clan of Highlords.

  And if it meant he could no longer risk bonding with Julia as deeply as he had, then that was a price he would have to pay. He grimaced at the thought, but people were counting on him.

  An entire world was counting on him.

  He would not let them down.

  8

  Though the land between Highlord domains was largely uninhabited and the rugged scenery was profoundly beautiful under Phoebe's silver light, Val could focus only on figuring out a way to hide his thoughts. Not behind a fierce wall of Ego, that Indomitable Will skill utterly alien to his way of thinking, but rather to cloak his thoughts, hide them somehow.

  He knew that at least once Christine had peered into his sleeping mind when he was most vulnerable, cyphering secrets he was thankful served to amuse Julia's mother more than anything else. This? He knew he had to tread carefully. She might understand. She might not.

  Somehow he had to partition his own psyche, burying that which he dared not ruminate too deeply over. He knew it would be time to act soon enough, but for now? He wanted to learn everything about his enemy, about this world, that he possibly could.

  He struggled fruitlessly for some time before he realized what should have been obvious. He had to hide certain ugly truths from himself as well.

  Taking a deep breath, he deliberately gazed upwards at the brilliant Phoebian moon, imagining himself sailing upon the vast oceans he could make out as clearly as any astronaut gazing upon Earth from space. With a deep, focused breath, he imagined placing all awareness of what he had done to Carlito's lab into the hands of that imaginary version of himself he could visualize so clearly sailing upon those high seas.

  He blinked and smiled, then his smile turned to one of rueful bemusement, not quite sure what had led to that terrible explosion, but grateful to have rolled out of that doomed veli in time, with a recording device and a pocketful of cubes he realized were immensely valuable. To him, and perhaps to Earth as well.

  Congratulations! You have achieved Rank 1 in Shadowsplit! Hide your thoughts so deeply, not even you will know what you’re thinking! Take a good long look at Phoebe's seas when you're ready to glimpse your own murderous secret!

  Val frowned and swallowed, knowing that wasn't something he wanted to do. At least, not yet.

  His walk turned into a run, and for a time he reveled in the potency of his own body, his Rank 10 PRM skill having breached some odd threshold, such that now not only did he have perfect control over his magic, he was so in tune with Jordia's energies that the electromana resonance thrummed through every cell of his body, energizing him in ways both subtle and profound.

  And from the shadows came laughter as a boy embracing the night flew like the wind, muscles tingling with an exhilaration unlike anything he had ever felt outside the killing fields of war.

  "Val, you're back. Where were you? Damn it, you scared the hell out of me!" Julia wrapped Val in a fierce hug. He tensed for a moment, then gently held her back.

  Julia frowned. "Val, what happened?"

  Val grimaced. It had been easy enough slipping past distracted servants hurrying to and fro, but the minute shadow pooled in the corner of their shared quarters, piercing gold-green eyes had pinned him for the lurking boy he was.

  Her ability to break his flow was uncanny.

  "I tried to follow them," he said. "Their velimobile's a massive thing. Sneaking onto it wasn't much harder than a kid sneaking into a bus." An exaggeration, but that was neither here nor there.

  Julia nodded. "That much I gathered." Warm hands wrapped around him, gentle lips kissing his neck. "Val?"

  "Yes?"

  "Thank you."

  He blinked. "For what?"

  Soft laughter. "Don't you dare tell me it wasn't you who tripped that bastard trying to set us up. Mother told me all about what happened. How she had savored the terror in his eyes when Carlito fell on his face, the very evidence he had intended to pawn on her workstation flying from his pocket for all the world to see. Val, if you hadn’t...” Julia swallowed, pinning him with her heartfelt gaze. “All I know is that if you hadn't done whatever it is you did, we'd probably be screaming in a pain vat right now."

  Val's hand reached up to clasp her own. "I'm glad he played the clumsy fool then."

  "T
hat's what you and the other Dauda were discussing, right, Val? Maybe he warned you since he didn't want kin to get killed? Or did you guys come to some sort of agreement? Should we expect to be making a generous donation to some third-party charity?" Her laughter was strained. "That's how we handle bribes and payoffs in the real world, right? Though I guess you'd know more about it than I."

  "I don't think you have to worry about it," Val soothed. "And if it turns out that someone is very angry at what happened... well, don't worry. Whatever penalty we have to pay to the Dauda or whoever, I'll pay it."

  Julia chuckled softly. "I know your father's rich, Val, but we're on Jordia now."

  Val nodded. "I know."

  A gentle hand guided his cheek, her eyes catching his own. "Val, how much are you worth?"

  Val grinned. "More than my family was back home, believe it or not."

  Julia burst into laughter, paling as she looked into his smiling gaze. "Oh my god. You're serious. How?"

  Val shrugged. "I sort of have this dimensional rift in my belly button. A remnant from when I catalyzed my own existence from the quantum flux of this world.”

  Julia blinked. "You're kidding. No, you're not. You really did will yourself into being."

  Val nodded. "Somehow. It didn't hurt that I formed inside a casket filled with Elementium and Silbion goop, which besides being intensely magical and explosive if too much Elementium is in the mix, is vital for arboriums and healing potions. It's also great for popping into being if recently killed, I guess."

  Julia's gaze turned strange. "Just don’t tell me I’ve fallen head over heels for a living god. But seriously, how much of those rare elements do you have stored right now?"

  Val grinned. "A heck of a lot. It's not all mine, though. In fact, most of it belongs to my friends."

  Julia’s gaze turned curious. "Your friends?"

  Val nodded. "From the first time I was here. I can only hope they escaped Jordia safely. Be that as it may, I'm still holding onto most of their share."